In wake of Kenseth suspension, JGR focused on title

Carl Edwards in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 6, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Suspended for two races for wrecking Joey Logano last Sunday at Martinsville, Matt Kenseth won’t be racing at Texas in the second event of the Chase’s Eliminator Round.

But that won’t prevent title-eligible Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch from focusing on the task at hand. Edwards is in his first year with JGR, after moving from his long-time home at Roush Fenway Racing.

“Everybody is just blazing forward to win a championship,” said Edwards, who qualified 13th for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. “As a group, we feel like we have a shot to win this championship. That’s what my 19 team is working on. I talked to (crew chief) Darian (Grubb) a little bit about it as we were going to lunch. We have a fourth team that we started, we’ve never worked together, and here we are with a shot at this, and we have fast cars and need to keep working on that.

“I really feel that the competition is as tough as it’s ever been. I feel like, to go out and do what we need to do, we need to focus on being as fast as we need to be. Everybody in the shop appears to me to be doing just that – they’re not looking backwards. They’re looking forward.”

Weepers cancel Saturday’s Sprint Cup practice

Hard rain on Friday night, combined with overcast, cool and humid conditions on Saturday morning, made track drying at Texas Motor Speedway especially challenging, even with the formidable power of the Air Titans.

“Weepers” – water seepage from underneath the asphalt – only compounded the problem. Track workers drilled holes in the racing surface to try to promote drainage, but the delay in drying the track forced cancellation of both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices and NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying on Saturday. The Sprint Cup garage was closed at 5 p.m.